A slightly acidic space for commentary, mixed with sweet undertones of optimism, and occasionally garnished with a cherry of insight.
Pample the Moose is the blog of Matthew Hayday, an associate professor in the History Department at the University of Guelph. The assorted musings here are his, and do not reflect the positions of the university.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

1 in 5 Canadians? Pshaw...

According to this Canadian Press story, which ran over the holiday season, recent polling indicated that about 20% of Canadians said that their vote could be swayed by the position that their MP took on same-sex marriage.

Only 20% - that's diddley-squat! Frankly, when you add together the estimated queer and evangelical populations of the country you come out with more than 20%. If I were a political advisor, I'd be telling the PM to hurry this legislation along, as it's not going to do him any significant harm in the next election, whenever that might be.

Frankly, I'm getting rather impatient on this front. And indeed, same-sex marriage was one of the issues that affected my vote in June, and my opinion of Paul Martin. I thought (as did the Supremes), that tacking on a fourth question to the Supreme Court reference was supreme political cowardice. I'm glad to see that Irwin Cotler is finally starting to issue some more positive rhetoric about this legislation - a vigourous defence that has been sadly missing since my former MP, Martin Cauchon, was pushed aside to make room for the walking disaster that is ex-Bloquiste MP Jean Lapierre. Hopefully other cabinet ministers (and maybe even Martin) will take up the positive charge in January. How are Canadians supposed to come around to support gay marriage when the Prime Minister seems so wishy-washy on the issue - and could not even bring himself to use the word "gay" in the leader's debates last election?